Abstract
The present study aimed to examine measurement invariance and psychometric properties of the Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale-Short Version (SCAS-S) in Chinese children. The measurement invariance across different informants (i.e., self-report and mother-report), as well as gender and longitudinal (i.e., one year) measurement invariance were tested for a sample of Chinese youth, using a series of confirmatory factor analyses (N = 462, Mage = 10.45, SDage = .85). Results indicated that the scores of the SCAS-S had strict measurement invariance across gender and a one-year time interval, and weak measurement invariance across informants. Additionally, correlations with the external variables showed that the self-report version SCAS-S had good construct validity. Furthermore, the internal consistencies for the SCAS-S subscales were acceptable across informants, gender, and time points. In conclusion, the findings suggest that the SCAS-S has satisfactory psychometric properties and can be a reliable tool to measure anxiety in Chinese children aged 9 to 13 years old.
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Data Availability
The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Funding
This study was funded by Guangzhou University’s Research Project (Grant No. YK2020026) and the Innovation Research for the Postgraduates of Guangzhou University (Grant No.2020GDJC-M27). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
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Gong, J., Wang, MC., Zhang, X. et al. Measurement invariance and psychometric properties of the Spence Children’s anxiety scale-short version (SCAS-S) in Chinese students. Curr Psychol 42, 9312–9323 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-02237-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-021-02237-x